Modern Arrangements: Complete Trilogy (Modern Arrangements #1-3) (70 page)

"Baby, we need to go home
too." Elora said softly to James. "Jimmy is already asleep."

James nodded and stood up.

"True, plus your job tonight is to
fuck that image out of my head." He growled and Elora gasped. Turning
bright red, she went to the nursery to get Jimmy.

"Now, that’s my nephew!" Viola
cheered and laughed loudly.

"My entire family is made up of
freaks!" I exclaimed and put my head back on the couch. I felt Lilli pat
my knee.

Then she whispered, "But, you have
to admit, it is highly entertaining." She laughed quietly.

"Maybe for you." I winked at
her.

"Viola, I do believe that we should
retire for the evening." Liam stood up and offered his hand to Viola.

She took it and stood, bringing her body
close to his.

"I hope that little Liam isn’t too
tired for a ride tonight…" she pouted at him and I choked back the urge to
throw up.

"Never, you know that you—"

"Alright, enough!"

"Fuck man. Let them continue…it’s
like foreplay for Celia and me!" Dixon laughed out and Celia covered her
mouth.

I turned my scowl on Lilli when I heard
her laughing hard. She quickly pulled her lips into her mouth. Too bad her body
was still shaking with laughter.

"You two, take it out of here."
I ordered, Viola and Liam laughed at my reaction.

As we were walking Viola and Liam to the
door, James and Elora appeared, James holding Jimmy in his arms. We said our
goodbyes, kissed and hugged before closing the door as the last of our guests
left, including Celia and Dixon.

"Well, that was…entertaining."
Lilli smirked.

"I’ll entertain you if you require
entertaining, Mrs. Iverson." I raised one eye brow at her suggestively.

"Don’t you ever get enough?"
She feigned annoyance and giggled as she headed up the stairs.

"Of you? Never!” I exclaimed, quickly
following her up the steps.

I had plans for her once we got to the
bedroom.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lilli

Aidan had become insatiable in the
bedroom. He claimed that he always felt that way about me, but somehow I think
that he was turned on by pregnancy. If he thought that I was going to be
pregnant all the time, he was fucking crazy. This was it. Four children were
enough for me.

 Monday morning, following the dinner, I
started to not feel well. Aidan was just climbing out of the shower and I could
hear him as he entered the bedroom. I tried to sit up, but there was a pain
that jolted from my hip to my shoulder. At first, I thought my sciatic nerve
was just acting up. I quickly realized that this was different when I felt wetness
gushing between my legs.

"Aidan…" I started but then
groaned from the sharp pains that were stretching up my back to my shoulders.

"What’s wrong?"

"It’s time." I croaked out and
his eyes shifted to my stomach.

He grabbed his cell phone and I could
barely make out the words car, hospital, now, won’t, and schedule over the
moans that I was releasing from the pain.

Kimberly appeared in front of me and
pulled my now wet nightshirt off of my body, replacing it with a dress.

"Can you stand?" She put her
arms out for me and I stood on wobbling legs. A pain hit and caused me to
slouch down to the bed again. "Aidan, you need to get going."

I gasped to catch my breath from the
contraction.

"These…aren’t like." another
pain hit fiercely. "Fuck!" I groaned out. "These aren’t like
with the twins." I spit out quickly before another pain hit.

Aidan had his arms underneath me and carried
me to the door. Kimberly was behind us with my hospital bags, yelling out to us
that everything would be fine here with the kids.

Once we were in the car, the driver sped
off and Aidan was rubbing my back as another contraction took over my senses.

"We’ll be there soon, baby."
He pushed some stray hairs out of my face.

"Oh God this hurts." I cried
out and Aidan held me tighter. I pushed him back. "I can’t breathe!"
I growled. He looked slightly shocked and amused at the same time. I couldn’t
help it, I was miserable.

We arrived to the hospital and two
nurses rushed us up to the maternity floor and settled me into my room. I was
pacing around the room, groaning and whining with each pain that surged through
my back.

The doctor came in with a large smile.
"Good, you are up and walking around."

"I’m dying." I groaned at him
as he chuckled.

"Oh, come on. We’ve done this
before." He smiled at me.

"Yeah, but it didn’t feel like this
the last time." I whined.

"All babies are different. Tell me
about the pain you are feeling?"

I told him that it felt like all of the
pain was wrapping around my stomach and stretching up my back to my shoulders.

"Ahh, you are experiencing back
labor." He nodded. "It’s a common sensation…"

"Sensation!" I exclaimed.
"This feels like something is trying to rip my spine in half!" I
panted and took a large breath as another pain caused me to curl up on myself
and brace my weight against the wall. Aidan quickly held my sides, gently rubbing
my back, as I began to straighten back out.

"I’m so sorry, baby." He
whispered to me.

"You should be." I snapped.
"Oh dear God, get it out of me!" I paced around the room.

"We need to check you, Lilli."
The doctor informed as he patted the hospital bed.

I cringed at the thought of him sticking
anything up my hoo-haw at this particular moment.

Lying on the bed, he pushed my knees apart
and then the painful pressure filled me. I groaned and shifted uncomfortably.

He pulled back and pushed the nurse call
button on the bed.

"Well, it looks as if your wish may
be granted. You are dilated to ten already." He smiled down at me and then
turned his attention to the nurse as they prepared to deliver the baby.

Aidan kissed the top of my head and held
my hand. "We’re almost there."

"Great, now I can’t get the
freaking drugs!" I felt him chuckle at my panted comment.

Another pain came and I started panting
and breathing heavy.

"Okay, Lilli, with your next
contraction, I want you to push." He looked up at me and I nodded, eager
to get it out. "Here we go."

I tightened my grip on Aidan’s hand and
started pushing down. "Good job." the doctor praised.

"You are doing so well." Aidan
cheered. "Here comes another one, push, Lilli, push!"

I pushed down again but the pain that
surged through my back caused me to stop in the middle.

"Lilli?" The doctor looked up
at me quickly.

"It hurts! My back…" I cried.

"Can’t you give her
something?" Aidan pleaded.

"Lilli, look at me." I forced
my eyes open and looked directly into the doctor’s face. "I need you to
push and push hard, it’s too late for anesthesia. You need to push hard.
Ready?" I nodded, though I was still unsure. "Okay, here we go."

"Come on, Lilli, you can do this.
You are the strongest woman I have ever met." Aidan was praising me on my
left and the doctor was working between my legs.

With a large guttural scream, I threw my
head back. I felt the pressure start to ease and panted heavily. Then we heard
it, a cry. I was wheezing heavily as I looked down. He laid the baby on my
stomach.

"Congratulations, it’s a
girl." The doctor smiled and I felt Aidan’s lips on my head over and over.

A tear slid down my cheek, but it wasn’t
mine. I turned my head and saw the free flowing tears of Aidan. His lips
smashed to mine, a mixture of salt and Aidan on my mouth. He pulled back and
wiped my forehead.

"Good job, baby." He smiled
wide-eyed and then turned his green eyes on his new daughter.

I slept for hours after I had given
birth. Back labor was a bitch and it had completely exhausted me. When I woke
up, I saw Aidan sitting in the recliner with Alesandra in his arms. He was
running his finger over her chubby, pink cheeks and whispering to her,

"Hey." I whispered and his
head snapped to me. A large smile spread on his face.

"She’s gorgeous, Lilli." I
could hear the pride in his voice. "Look at all her hair." He looked
back down on her adoringly.

He was right, she had almost a full head
of dark, brown hair on her tiny, round head. Her skin was as pink as Livy’s had
been when she was born, but she didn’t have one trace of red hair.

"She’s going to look like
you." He beamed at me.

"You never know…" I trailed
off as he placed her in my arms.

"No, I can feel it when I look at
her. She’s going to be you through and through. I’m gonna have to protect her
from tons of boys." He laughed.

"Well, now you have Livy and
Alesandra to go all ‘protective father’ on." I smiled down at the new baby
in my arms.

"Nah, Walsh has my back on Livy.
He’ll kill anyone that comes near her. But, Ales, here, I will have to pay
extra attention to, especially when she ends up looking just like you." He
kissed the side of my head.

I was laughing quietly when the first of
many hospital visitors and gifts started to arrive. Phoebe and Celia burst into
the room arguing over who would hold her first. Dixon beat them all to punch,
smirking at them as they pouted.

Liam and Viola arrived with Maggie and
Abby. Sarah called me after I had Aidan send her a picture mail. He also sent
one to Donald, but I hadn’t heard anything from him yet. As evening approached
and I didn’t hear from him, I started to worry. Aidan kept telling me that
everything was fine, trying to reassure me.

"How do you know?" I argued as
Anne and Henry entered the room with Elora and James.

We had as full of a room as when the
twins were born, but I went back to worrying about my dad.

"Aidan, did you call him?" He
nodded. "Call Millie." I ordered.

"Why are you going to call
Millie?" My head snapped up to see my dad standing in the doorway with a
smug look on his face.

"Oh, my! When…how?" I turned
to Aidan. "Did you do this?" I yelled at him as he grinned.

"I called him this morning and he
said he wanted to come out to see the new baby, so I sent the jet." He
shrugged but I could see the slight smugness that revealed how proud he was of
himself.

My dad came over and hugged me tenderly.
Quickly, Maggie brought the baby to my dad. He nervously took her in his arms
and smiled.

"She looks just like you when you
were a baby."

"Told you." Aidan whispered
and I elbowed him in the arm. "Ow!" He laughed.

My dad looked up and chuckled at us.

"She really does, Lilli. You had
the same hair and chubby cheeks. Didn’t your mother think so?"

"She called to congratulate us, but
she didn’t say. It was a picture mail, so it’s not the best quality." I
shrugged, though I knew that my mother was a little different. It didn’t
matter.

"What’s her name?" My dad
asked.

"Alesandra Sarah Iverson."
Aidan answered and I looked up at him. He winked. We had chosen Alesandra, but
the Sarah was new. I smiled at him and hugged his arm as I put my head on his
shoulder.

The next surprise for the evening was
when Kimberly and Rachel arrived with Walsh, Livy and Cole. I was so excited
and happy to see them. Aidan was holding Ales when they arrived, so I quickly
hugged each of them as Kimberly put them on the bed with me. Walsh was on my
right, Livy on my left, and Cole was on my lap. Aidan sat down and held Ales
out for them to see.

Livy looked the closest and then smiled.

"Baby." She giggled.

"Remember mommy’s tummy?"
Aidan asked her and I patted my less round stomach. Livy turned and looked at
my stomach and then back to the baby. "Ales came out of mommy’s
tummy."

Livy giggled and rubbed the baby’s head
easily.

"She so little." She whispered
out.

Cole leaned forward a little, but
wouldn’t touch her.

"Can you give your baby sister
kisses?" Aidan asked.

Livy kissed her cheek. Cole surprisingly
kissed her head. Walsh furrowed his brow.

"Baby sister?" He looked up at
Aidan curiously. Aidan nodded. "Give the baby to mommy." Aidan looked
at Walsh with surprise and then handed her to me.

Liv and Cole were touching her head
softly, but Walsh took ‘his’ place on Aidan’s lap. I laughed.

"Someone is a little jealous."
I smiled.

Aidan nodded and sighed. "I guess
so."

"Walsh, aren’t you excited to have
a new sister?" He shook his head and I laughed. "Don’t you want to
take her back to our house?" He shook his head. "Well, then, what are
we supposed to do with her?" I bit my lips together to stop from laughing.